broken hearted serenade
by ReedHardWriter
Summary: a broken Sakura tries to make it in a world where she is alone- surprises lay ahead for her, be it for good or bad.
1. Chapter 1

There was never another person so kind hearted- selfless-hopelessly goofy-or loyal than him in her book. To say that she missed him was an understatement. To say that she loved him was an understatement. To say that she knew him would have been a lie. But to a lot of people it was as close to the truth as she could ever get.

He had spent eight years of his life looking for his brother; hoping and praying everyday that he could finally go home. Kami alone could lead him to and from his brother over the course of those years-almost like a mouse with string.

And it was kami alone that took the beautiful blond haired man from the lives of those who truly loved him. For eight years he fought and battled a losing battle-and then he just disappeared. There were no traces to find. Nothing other than a battle ground that told of a great battle. The only body left on the battle grounds was that of his brother-badly beaten and nearly dead with internal bruising and lacerations.

The woman who was left behind- for that was what she was now- couldn't help but be hysterical. Even when her team had left the scene she remained-convinced that she would somehow find her blond haired teammate. She scoured the trees and shrubbery for three days without food or rest. She finally found his hitaite-and she knew.

If her blond friend had been alive, he would not have left it behind. It was his pride and joy-his symbol of being a ninja. The beautiful woman curled into a ball around the headband of her best friend and for the rest of the night cried. She cried for the man who had sacrificed his life for the whims of a little girl-for the man who had grown closer to her than even a mother, father, or even brother could. She cried because he never had, could or would.

It would be the next morning that that same woman would send a messenger bird to her village and then turn towards the south where after a day's hard travels she would be at the office of Gaara of the sand, the kazekage and that mans best friend.

Feeling more drained than she ever thought possible- Sakura made her way to the village hidden in the sand to relay the death of one of the greatest men to ever live.


	2. Chapter 2

"gaara-sama" the small pink haired woman whispered from the shadows of the office. She had hidden there until the last of his appointments had left before revealing herself. She knew that this would be devastating for him.

His eyes flickered toward her as she stepped into the light, her hand wrapped firmly around a headband that was obviously not hers. She gently placed it on his desk and stepped back with her head bowed. Gaara was only a little bit confused by her actions-she had never been this subdued before, not even when her life was in peril. As he glanced down at the headband again he saw what it was that she had obviously wanted him to see.

"when?"

"We don't know exactly yet, we couldn't find his body. I searched for days and this is all I had found. But you and I both know that if he was alive-he would not have left that behind." Gaara was almost shocked that the woman in front of him had just told him that his best friend was dead.

"you will stay the night in the tower. Your old room." Sakura nodded and left silently. It was not easy for her to admit that her important person was not among the living anymore. It was even harder for her to accept that fact. Naruto had always pulled off unimaginable feats, and so at every corner she was expecting him to jump out at her and scream in his loud voice, "Surprise!!!"it did not happen.

It could not happen;it would not happen.


	3. Chapter 3

Broken Hearted Serenade

Chapter 3.

Days passed and The Incident in Ame no Kuni as Sakura had dubbed it where her team-mates had lost their lives over a stupid promise and revenge. To harden her heart Sakura Let the village community know that it didn't mean a thing to her stating simply that if they wanted to die so badly then that was their choice and at this point could not be reversed. There was no point in crying over spilt milk. However every ninja in the village with two bits of sense knew that every year on their death day Sakura would travel the distance to Amu no Kuni and for three days wait for them in the forest. Except on those precious days Sakura was an emotionless tool for the villages' use. She buried herself in missions and Hospital work and Training on the days she was forced to take leave. She would complete assassinations without breaking a sweat and her handlers were hard pressed to say anything other than how effective and efficient she was. Soundless and often times sightless she killed in different ways each time never leaving any evidence that there could be a connection to Konoha.

By the end of five years Sakura was wishing for death with every mission-taking hits and damage that she would never normally let herself get, testing her limits and hoping that with every mission she would be one step closer to her boys. The hollow feeling in her had finally solidified and was slowly turning her into a monster that was feared by all. She never worked in the Hospital anymore unless there was an emergency and all the medics were unable to do a thing. The bingo book Classified her as Level SS Ninja and nothing on her appearance was known nor anything about her Preferred Jutsu-The only real useful information the book had on her was that she new over a thousand Jutsu. It was advised that any that saw her should flee on sight.

Sakura continued to reap the lives of those she was sent after- She would be a weapon that the village could rely on, should would be there no matter what. It was December and Sakura was just returning from her Espionage Mission when a Jounin messenger raced up to her panting and handed her the scroll he was carrying. Sakura Handed him her mission scroll from her previous mission and nodded to him before turning around and walking back out of the village without a backwards glance.

"Mission: Sand Liaison Medical Ambassador

Objective: Heal any and all sick and injured in Suna and Train Medics to take over positions in the hospital. All Medic level Ninja needed. Reform medical program and hospital….yadda yadda yadda.

Completion time: Six months to two years." Sakura read aloud.

"Something must have Hokage-Sama not wanting me home. Any other medic would have done…" Sakura made the hand seals for the body flicker technique and readied her chakra before she was speeding toward Suna at the speed of light. She knew of only one person in the course of history who had truly perfected this technique and that was Narutos sire The Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze. Sakura had trained in all of her free time out in the field and finally learned how to make the technique work and after relentlessly practicing for five years Sakura could now do the Body Flicker perfectly.

In a way Sakura had done everything in her power to keep the memory of Naruto and Sasuke alive for herself by learning every one of their techniques and those of her friends back in Konoha. Sakura new that one day Tsunade would eventually find her to be a liability and even after all of her training and trust building Tsunade had a village to look after, one emotionally compromised ANBU could not be over looked as a threat to the security of the village. Sakura was starting to wonder if maybe her once teacher was at her failing point and was just trying to make it seem like a long string of missions so that she didn't have to explain anything to anyone nor be faced with any decisions that she may regret later.

By midnight that day Sakura had come up with a lot of questions and not a lot of answers, and she had arrived at the gates of the Sand Village where one of Sakura's oldest friends was the Godaime Kazekage Gaara of the desert. After signing in at the gate Sakura walked down the main road of the city in the general direction of the KazeKage tower knowing that eventually she would get Gaara's attention. She was sure that he already felt her presence in his village because when she had arrived she her released her chakra for a second before hiding it again. Like expected Sakura didn't have to wait long before Gaara joined her on the casual strolling pace she had set for herself on the way to his office. She held her mission scroll out to him without a word and after he read it and returned it to her she burned it.

"Something is going on in Konoha," He made it a statement but neither of them really had proof. " I was greeted consecutively from my last eight missions before I even reached the Gates- I haven't seen my village in nearly a year and now the Hokage sends me to reform your medical units for up to two years. I have a few theories but no substantial evidence and I cant very well refuse the missions anymore because everyone knows that with Kakashi out of commission there are a lot of dangerous people out to get a chance to destroy the village."

""Either way, you will have full control of the hospital and you are free to make any and all changes that are necessary. You will also have a full time body guard since I know how hard you push yourself and I would rather prefer that you don't die on my watch." Sakura Snorted in amusement- Since the death of her team-mates Gaara was frankly the only person she let herself get close to. The only person who never posed a threat to her new way of life, he simply accepted it and moved on. "you will be staying in your room again in the Mansion and you will have full access to the greenhouse whenever you need. If there is anything else you need let me know and I will see about having it arranged for you." Gaara was only slightly sure about Sakura needing a babysitter but had decided that she didn't need to know that.

As the sun rose from the desert floor and began to shine light onto the city Sakura nodded her head to the kazekage before transporting herself to the hospital lobby. For the first time in all of the years that Sakura had been coming to Suna for medical relief she had never seen the hospital as empty as it was this morning. Glaring at the head nurse at the nurses station Sakura walked up to the waiting room and healed the two patients sitting in pain."My name is Sakura Haruno! I am your new boss and from now on there are going to be new rules. No patient is to be left waiting when there are available beds." The nurses and doctors who had come to see what the strange lady in the lobby was doing stood ram rod straight as her words imprinted themselves on any who were listening. " Starting today I will be working one on one with every patient and every patient will be seen. I want the head doctor and surgeon and nurse to bring me all of their reports in one hour – I do not accept lateness. I will be commandeering the Head Doctors' office until I can find one of my own later."

Sakura had finished with the boy with the broken arm and the old woman who was coughing up blood due to internal bleeding from a fall. Both smiled at Sakura as they left and promised to be more careful. The doctors and nurses were all standing still as if they hadn't heard Sakura.

"Get to work- Laziness, Tardiness, and stupidity will get you fired immediately!" For the first time in years the hospital staff moved like hells fire was on their heels. For the next forty-five minutes Sakura visited the rest of the patients and talked to them a little about the staff. Sakura finally removed herself from the last patient and found her way to the Head doctors' private office to find that the requested files were ready and stacked alphabetically and in three different piles. Someone had decided that a Sterilization Jutsu was needed as well and Sakura was only slightly amused that the idea had even crossed anyone's mind.

Hours later three squads returned with life threatening wounds and Sakura was dragged from her office to administer emergency surgery since her head surgeon and doctor had decided to quit earlier in the afternoon leaving her with no other surgeons and nine patients that needed emergency surgery. After a growl Sakura created eight clones of herself that she used to get all of the surgeries done while she worked on the most difficult one personally. Sakura wanted to work on each of the ninja in person but new that she didn't have the time to go one by one. Sakura gave each of her clones just enough chakra that they could be sustained until the surgeries were completed.

Another two and a half hours dragged by and Sakura walked out of the operating room with blood on her scrubs and a grim expression on her face. She immediately located a nurse and told her of each patient and directed for the Shinobi to be sent to recovery and roomed by squads. The nurse nodded and handed her a scroll that looked to have been sent by Gaara. Opening it as she walked to the hospital shower room she fount that it was a letter.

Sakura,

I have decided on a bodyguard for you and He will be starting tomorrow morning. Even if you don't like him, please do not kill him. I warn you he is slightly obnoxious but a ninja I would never question at my back.

Gaara.

Sakura smiled in a grim sort of way and made her way to the showers after burning the message in her hand. A few minutes later Sakura was locking herself securely in the shower room which she reinforced with her chakra.

For the next thirty minutes Sakura steamed herself in the shower and relaxed after nearly a year of continuous missions and then a whole day of medical crap. No matter what she did though Sakura was always brought back to the medical meeting she had called this afternoon and how almost all of the current staff had quit after realizing that Sakura was not going to be scared away by threats from the muscle bound idiots who didn't like her new position and had in her eyes very gently asked them to remove themselves if they had a problem.

"You are young and barely experienced" She had said. "You don't have to like me, You don't have to respect me-You do have to listen to me. End of story." The young bloods in the room had left after throwing a massive fit about her attitude. Those that remained took her at her word and didn't just throw the friendship boat straight at her. For the remainder of the day Sakura was barely acknowledged aside from when she was giving out orders.

Leaving the shower Sakura was accosted by one of the nurses from that morning who had decided to stay the moment the chakra barrier was lowered. "Even the Kami need to rest. You haven't eaten since before you arrived I'll imagine and you just performed nine major surgeries at once." The woman watched as Sakura walked naked to one of the lockers that held her things and released a clean set of black nylon leggings, black chest binding with seals imprinted into the fabric, black arm wraps , black baggy cargo pants and burgundy medic vest."You completed nine surgeries in two hours and still managed to run the hospital without any help. However, you are still human." Sakura sighed and said off handedly," sometimes i wonder."

The petite woman that stood in front of her was the new head nurse and was also one of the newest on the staff according to the information that Sakura had gotten from the records.

"I wish I could rest." It was a statement whispered with such remorse and sorrow that the young nurse almost wasn't sure she had heard it whispered from the pink haired woman's mouth."

"Good, because as soon as you are dressed you are coming with me to the tea house around the corner for dinner and then you should be getting home. How does that sound?" Sakura's mouth twitched. "Do you have a name, little sprout?" The girl talking so casually with her looked barely out of her teens and yet reminded Sakura so much of Ino that she almost immediately barely let the thought pass before squashing it barely concealed horror on the nurses face was what reminded Sakura that she was still very much undressed and that with as many scars on her body the poor woman was still trying to remain polite to her. Sakura's only thought was that she was happy that Naruto was not around to see the scars that she now sported. he'd never let her on another mission again. Sakura began to rush her dressing simply to make the other woman feel a little more comfortable.

"Mika, Mika Azure." Mika sported a pair of wide sapphire eyes and short black hair that shone with green and blue streaks in certain places. "I just turned twenty-one this year so I new here. It's a rule that in order for you to work in the hospital you have to have five years field experience and be twenty-one as well as passing the yearly medical examination for the first four years."

At this point Sakura was almost finished dressing the only thing still revealed was her feet and hands. Sakura slipped her feet into her shoes as she lit fire to her scrubs and destroyed any traces of her presence.

"It was nice talking with you Mika; however I must get back to work. Good evening." Sakura left the showers with a slightly better disposition than when she went in and sadly she had to admit it wasn't due to the shower.

The rest of Sakura's evening consisted of reading patient reports and keeping an eye on the problem patients.

When four a.m. rolled around and Sakura was still not in residence Gaara was only annoyed. He really should have known something like this was going to happen. Sakura's biggest problem with people in the last five and a half years was simply that-people. She buried herself in work and training anytime she was home and Sakura hadn't been to her home in nearly a year. She had learned to train while on the move and how to keep others from learning anything about her, giving her an almost Kami-like reverence to anyone who didn't know her in friendly terms. Sadly her list of friends had dwindled in the past few years since her team's death and she could only really see a handful of them as her friends who learned how to accept a life of solitude never did relearn how to accept hospitality from others or even what it was like to rest once in a while in the sun.

Sakura had said that she had a few theories about why Tsunade-hime wasn't allowing her entrance to the village but she hadn't really elaborated on any of them. Gaara wasn't normally a nosy or even inquisitive person yet this once he was truly stumped when it came to Sakura and Tsunade. Time was they were closer then the air and earth. Though lately Sakura's letters had been coming in closer and closer together- how long her letters took to get to him determined how far away she was. The fact that Tsunade hadn't been letting Sakura even come close to the village gates was suspicious but now this mission…He would eat his hat if he was wrong but he suspected that Sakura was to be here for the full two year duration then immediately sent to another long term mission probably a recon mission that would involve her getting caught and tortured again. The last time Sakura had been barely lucky to make it to a safe place before she ended up dead. His sister had found her unconscious body when Sakura had released the Small amount of sand Shukaku had gifted her for saving the life of his vassal years ago ordering it to find Gaara and bring help. They had just barely made it in time, and on the return trip Sakura's heart had stopped four Gaara wondered if that was merely a set up to have the last member of team seven killed.

It was nearly five a.m. and Gaara was beginning to suspect that he would have to send her new body guard to her office in the hospital before she was going to go home to rest. One of the few things that the legendary team seven all had in common with each other was their ridiculously high amount of stamina and endurance in the most mundane matters. When five a.m. actually did roll around, Gaara raised his eyebrow and decided to wait out Sakuras' stubbornness; he sent the body guard to the hospital with the orders of stealth.

"under no circumstances is anyone to now that you are there, and you are only to interfere if it is dire. She'll skin you alive if she finds out you real mission." The ninja assigned to watch sakura was one who was relatively new to Suna but had exhibited great skill that was on par with even the Kazekage. However almost none of his techniques were even remotely familiar and he had the best invisibility abilities from anyone around. Sadly he would have to sent his newest ninja into the demons nest without back up. Gaara sighed, this was going to be a really long day.

"Ren Kai- Dismissed." There was slight amounts of fear in the young mans gaze, the half mask he wore to hide his face slightly lessened the terrified look on the young mans face.


	4. Chapter 4

Broken Hearted Serenade

Chapter 4.

It had been two months since Sakura had come to Suna and the occasional scuffle still happened in the hospital due to conflicting opinions. By this time Sakura had won over half of the staff while the other half still resisted her adamantly. Over the course of those two months Sakura had fired and hired many medic nin as well as begun the training of thirty new interns. The hospital was finally running efficiently and Sakura was beginning to relax in her environment. She still rejected lunch dates with any of the random ninja that asked her and she only rarely went out to dinner with Mika, who was steadily becoming her newest friend and was also her right hand in the hospital. By the end of the second month Mika had convinced Sakura to have a Second head for the hospital who would oversee things when Sakura's other duties took over or when she wasn't present at the hospital. Mika also assigned second head nurse to take over for when she wasn't on duty. Those first two months were the quietest Sakura had ever had working in a hospital, and once she had jokingly stated that, "sometimes I wonder if I've mistaken my office for the morgue with how silent the place has been."

Month three hit with a terrible deadly virus that Sakura swore up and down was a plague. Her new medics combated with the virus until they fell ill themselves and they had their chakra drained away by the sickness. It took three days and four deaths before anyone realized that there was Chakra in the virus making it resistant to treatment. Sakura never took a break and spent days on end working in a makeshift lab in her office to find a cure. It finally came to a point where there was only herself and a handful of other medics that had not fallen from the sickness when Gaara saw Sakura do something he never thought he'd see. He was guarding her since her body guard (Nanny) had come down with the virus and was unable to perform his duties. Sakura exposed herself to the virus in order to find a treatment in her own body and to use her own blood as a base for the cure. She let it get to it's worst potential before trying any ninjutsu to try removing it. The Chakra Absorption technique stripped the virus of the Chakra that was guarding it from being treated and then natural remedies to fight the virus had to be used- the body needed to grow an immunity to the virus so that it could not get sick from that virus again. Using chakra to eradicate the sickness wouldn't accomplish anything except to shatter the immune systems of those it was performed on. Once Sakura had her answer she called for Mika who had not gotten sick and was working in the children's ward where the virus had hit the hardest.

" I want you to go to the green house with Gaara and gather these herbs and bring them to me." She handed Mika a list she had written only a moment before. " I will start stripping the virus of it's backbone from the worst effected and then move on. The patients will need to be given a natural remedy to combat the sickness relatively soon after having their chakra will die or become comatose without the treatment." Mika nodded and raced out the door with Gaara hot on her trail as Sakura dragged herself to her feet and proceeded to the most effected. She would have liked to get to the children first but knew that their treatments had to be slightly different and much more careful then that of the adults. It wasn't long before Mika and Gaara returned with as much of the ingredients as they could carry.

Sakura looked almost relieved as she was still working on absorbing the chakra from one of the last of the patients with the exception of the children. "this virus's strength varies from patient to patient based on the amount of Chakra they have. The stronger the chakra the more potent the virus. Gaara, this virus was sent from somewhere, I need you to go guard the walls to make sure there isn't any outside invaders using this to weaken our defenses." Sakura made two copies of herself with the coursing energy of every citizen she had stripped of their chakra. "One is to go with you since the wall is bare for now and you might need help and the other is to go with Mika to create the antidote with the herbs you are carrying. There is enough chakra in each to fight a war and still survive until I call them back." Sakura turned away and continued to work on the few remaining patients she had before going into the children's ward. Gaara and Mika had left the moment Sakura was done talking.

Sakura knew that the children were going to be the hardest and most delicate to treat. There were a hundred and thirty-six children who had fallen ill, and they were the worst off since they had been exposed the longest. With all of the chakra she had siphoned from each sick person Sakura created one hundred and thirty five clones with enough chakra to perform the chakra absorption technique once. By the time each clone had started absorbing the chakra from each child Mika had returned with the antidote for each child and then began administering the rest to the adults still fighting with the original virus. For hours Sakura kept watch over the patients. After a bout of forty-eight hours with no sleep or rest and finally devoid of chakra Sakura went to her office and pulled out a map of the village trying to pin point the location of the outbreak. Sakura knew she was tapped out in every sense of the word and still she pushed forward. She knew that the culprit had to be in the village and would try to leave the moment it was exposed that there was a cure.

Fifty lives had been claimed by the deadly virus and Sakura knew each name and face. She forced her life force energy to transport her to the source of the virus. There was a man standing with his back to her and Sakura was absolutely sure that this was the source of the virus that had taken so many every villager in the village he was the only one not up at the hospital. When he turned around Sakura narrowed her eyes as the previous head of medicine stared back at her. The man who had quit a little over two months ago. Sakura was beyond disgusted and annoyed. The Virus was concocted by this slimy little man!

"You are going to tell me everything you know…" Sakura walked into his little house and closed the the next hour and a half there was nothing but screaming heard on the empty streets of Suna."You have forgotten one very important factor to your little plan there Musaki…I am not just a doctor… I am your worst nightmare." For every lie the little man said sakura removed a chunk of skin and then dragged her nails across the exposed muscular area. After an hour Sakura grew bored.

"It's too bad Musaki… It was a brilliant plan…except for one part…you got caught." Sakura called upon Shukaku's sand-Gaara's gift to her after she had saved his brother years ago. "Desert coffin." The Doctors eyes grew wide as a small amount of sand gathered all of the sand in the area growing large and looming. "No! No! NO!" The sand enclosed the doctor and destroyed his body and mind all in one leaving nothing but blood. The sentient sand was as happy as can be, it's master had let it have a feast of blood from a murderer. In thanks for the joy the sentient sand created a raft and caught Sakura's body as it finally gave out, taking her directly to Gaara.

Gaara POV

There was a sand done moving towards me and it was coming in fast. I didn't feel any ill intentions, in fact, there was nothing except warm fuzzy feeling coming from the sand mound. Putting my hand out I noticed that there was a small amount of Shukaku's essence in the sand. Worry began to seep into my brain. The only other person who had control of shukaku's sand was Sakura.

Just as I had suspected, once the sand fell away from the body it was guarding and the sentient sand had gone back into it's miniature gourd at her waist, Sakura was completely out. I could barely hear her breathing. I asked Shukaku to find out what he could from the sentient sand that he had gifted Sakura while I took her home to rest.

End Gaara POV

She slept for five days, her body completely spent. There were still two Clones that were running around handling things at the hospital so no one besides Mika and Gaara knew that anything had happened to Sakura. Gaara had learned everything about the Doctor Musaki and how he had created the virus to get revenge on the KazeKage and Sakura for losing his job. He learned how Sakura had adequately punished the man and then killed him to keep the people from learning the truth about the virus and who had created it. Gaara could not leave his post for five days so he gave Mika a mission to take care of Sakura while she slept. By the third day Sakura's little shadow Ren Sen was back in action and had taken his place by her side as well keeping watch on her as if he had known her his whole life.

By month four Sakura was training another bunch of people to be medic-nins, this time it was a bunch of orphan children. Sakura set up a home for them around the corner from the hospital and made sure to keep food and water available to each child. "With them being so young and impressionable they can help save lives in case of emergency. And frankly those children need something to keep their minds off of anything that doesn't revolve around death and war. This will give them the chance to be children and teach them to be productive members of this village." Sakura had a lot of fights with Gaara's Security advisor , " Your security breaching measures are good but they leave room for improvement." She had told the overbearing man with the disposition of a glacier in the middle of an arctic winter. The older students were taught not only medical jutsu but also defensive fighting. Each person was assigned a weapon based on their elemental affinity and was thoroughly trained in every aspect of the weapon as well as their medical knowledge.

Month five flew by with the Advanced Medical Infantry (A.M.I.) having their training at dusk every day and the children having their lessons at dawn every day. Her second in command Inari Kuchiyase dealt with the hospital at those times so that Sakura could personally oversee the their training, except when there were medical emergencies that were far too advanced for his experience and or knowledge.

In month six Gaara was abducted during a routine patrol at the gate. There was a handpicked group of elite shinobi- one of which was Ren Sen her mysterious bodyguard. Another was a quiet elite shinobi relatively new to the village by the name of Kyo Haun, he sported Red hair and golden brown eyes that looked like they were almost always thinking something naughty. The final addition to the group was Shishio Yakona, he was one of the reservists Sakura had been training and was already an elite ninja- he had volunteered once Sakura had mentioned that it might be beneficial to have the KazeKage's life debt. The group set out and found the group of ninja's known as the Akatsuki trying to extract the biju from Gaara, again. Sakura fought with all of the S-class shinobi knowing that her life would probably be forfeit and ordered that the rest of her team focus on breaking the barrier that was keeping Gaara prisoner.

"And guys?" she only said this at the last second before their plans were to be put into motion. " you are my team- I'll protect you with my life. Save the Kazekage. Once he is in your grasp go home as fast as you can- do not look back." They immediately began to argue with the woman that was leading their team.

"Sakura-hime!"Shishio Yakona

"We wont leave you behind!"Kyo Haun

"Gaara-sama would kill us if anything happened to you!" Ren Sen.

"Enough! Those who don't follow orders are scum, those who leave their friends behind are less than scum. I wont leave Gaara behind! And I wont allow you to be captured." Sakura used the body flicker technique after holding the gazes of each of her team- mates and making sure that they would obey her. Sakura was slightly confused about the sorrowful look that was on both of the faces of Ren Sen and Kyo Haun but those sentiments were to be forgotten for now.

Sakura reappeared on the other side of the cavern and stuck her fingers in her mouth making a shrill whistle that caught the attention of the six akatsuki members present. " Hello boys!" Sakura even had the nerve to wink at the group of men now looking at Sakura with the most evil of expressions. " Wanna play?" Sakura was completely sure that if Naruto and Sasuke could see her now they would have her immediately admitted to the psyche ward for life. Sakura could not see that her eyes had lit up and that a smile played at her lips for the first time in over five years, nor that such a reaction had caused the unease of the Akatsuki.

Sakura began to bounce on the balls of her feet, her toes feeling the dirt from the cave and the slightly grown grass. Sakura knew that to beat the Akatsuki and live she would have to use all of her skills and that meant that she would have to be connected. Sakura's grin went from unknowing to malicious and psychotic in less than a second and so did her mind. She suddenly wanted to see blood everywhere. She wanted to dance and paint with it. Sakura had let her inner out.

"Leave girl! We're busy!" Hoshigaki kisame shouted at the very excited pixie who was interrupting their work.

"well see, you interrupted my nap by causing such an annoyance. It's only fair. And you see, that man and his demon are my friends. So I cant let you take them away from me." Such simple, child like words backed only with such malicious intent shocked the members of the Akatsuki but not so much as when she suddenly disappeared. Sakura smiled as her eyes grew wide in excitement. She danced around the Akatsuki keeping up with a melody that only she could hear.

Sasori and Zetsu distanced themselves from Sakura and tried to find a pattern to her crazy dancing. Hidan and Kakuzu forwardly attacked her. Sakura had a severe advantage with the two men being severely drained of their chakra. Kisame and Itachi continued with the extraction. Sakura needed to distract all of them, so she did the one thing she told Ino that she would never do. She stripped for the enemy and then proceeded to remove their clothes using a genjutsu that made every male she chose live their greatest sexual fantasy in a way that did not take them from the immediate fight but instead redirected their chakra so that the only thing it did at that point was make them orgasm every time they chose to access their chakra. "That's what I call a good time…" Sakura laughed in a naughty way and managed to sidle up to Kisame and with a light touch to his arm Sakura completely disabled the use of his arm and the right side of his body without causing him any pain but sent his pain and pleasure sensors backwards and by sheer pleasure alone knocked Kisame out. "What a way to go." Sakura continued to distort the Akatsuki's pain and pleasure sensors leaving only Itachi unharmed. "you cant extract the Ichibi alone Uchiha. Your brother made the mistake of biting off more than he could chew and look where that got him." Itachi's attention momentarily left the extraction and focused on Sakura. He knew who she was, and he knew what she was doing.

"Don't you think it would be beneficial for you to take your own advice Blossom?" Sakura smirked.

"Of course not, if I did that then I would have to wait longer to go and see them again." Sakura's attention was completely on Itachi as she felt the rest of her team move into action and remove Gaara from the extraction area and leave the cavern. " I cant honestly think of anything better," Sakura stood up straight and looked right into his eyes. "I want them back and that is never going to happen. So I might as well do what I can to join them." Itachi saw a sorrow that stretched for miles in her pale green eyes. He almost forgot that she was giving him a chance to take her where she stood.

"Remember this little blossom, not everything is as it seems." The pinwheels of his eyes began to spin. "Tsukuyomi" Sakura stood as still as a board and when Itachi approached her eyes followed him and her body reacted.

"If you think something as mundane as that little trick is going to work on me Uchiha, you are mistaken. Try harder little weasel." Itachi's eyes grew narrow as he raced through the hand signs needed and shouted, "Amaterasu." To say that Itachi was a little annoyed was certainly a severe understatement. The little chit was antagonizing him and had managed to reclaim the Ichibi.

"Uchiha. I'll let you in on a little secret before you die. The only reason I have never come after you is because I keep hoping that your ototo will magically appear and finish what he started." Sakura's eyes were pleading with Itachi for a truth she knew would never hear again. " As much as I want to keep waiting for them, I truly cant anymore. Im sorry, Goodbye."

At this point itachi was convinced that Sakura had finally become unstable and would do something that was going to cost her life. Itachi's eyes caught the single sign she was concentrating on and noticed that her resolve seemed to become stronger within the four seconds that it took sakura to finish gathering her chakra enough to finally release it.

"Chidori Blossoming rain," Sakura created five balls of lightning that hovered between her hands sparking defiantly. "Scatter." Itachi wasn't sure what he was expecting but en eye blinks time later sakura had once again disappeared and her lightning orbs created a variation of Sasuke's Chidori Senbon only this was on a larger scale and at least a hundred times more powerful.

"Seems to me, Kakashi taught all of his precious little students his legacy." Itachi murmured knowing that Sakura would be able to hear it. The next thing Itachi knew he was fighting fifteen Sakura's all with the same Chakra level and all as different as the next. Five of the sakura's attacked Itachi in close quarter combat and three attacked him from long range. Four other Sakura's Attacked with Element Jutsu each utilizing the four main elemental Jutsus to keep Itachi confused and on the run. There were three more using medical ninjutsu to attack while three more hid in their shadows using Chakra Absorption technique to catch him in his very well hidden weak spots. The final Sakura was standing upside down on the ceiling and mentally coordinating with the others to rally them. She was also in charge of keeping the flow of chakra even between all of the Sakura's and regulating a chakra sphere, to absorb and cut off Itachi's chakra.

They fought for eight days and at the end of the eighth day Sakura sat down in the center of the cave and let sleep overcome her. She cried in her sleep, each and every memory of Sasuke and Naruto replaying in her mind.

"I want to some day restore my clan." Sasuke's words rang in her mind as she slept and when sakura finally awoke and found herself still in the cave, she heaved a sigh of relief. Itachi's dead body had been burned to a crisp on the eighth day after he had died by using his susanoo, kagutsuchi and izanagi for a complete defense and holding it for too long. Frankly he over taxed himself and began using his life force to keep going, causing his jutsu's to turn on him and eat him once he lost control. When Itachi's Jutsu went out of control Sakura was only barely able to set up a barrier to protect herself from the Explosion and fire, the unconcious bodies of the rest of the Akatsuki members which had been put into a comatose state were burned to ashes within seconds.


End file.
